Page 59 of Phantom
She grabbed my arm, pulled me back inside the motel room, and shut the door. “You want to go back?”
“They need us, Tess,” I said.
Her eyes shimmered with concern, but I could see the gears turning in her head as well. “We may not leave Hoppa if we go back.”
“I know.”
Tess reached into her back pocket and pulled out her go-to brass knuckles. “All right. Let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Phantom
All I could think about as Tess and I drove at top speed back into Hoppa was how, for the first time in my entire life, I was truly happy that I’d left my bike behind. All it would have taken for the Dogs to stop to investigate was for one of them to glance to the right and see a pair of bikes. Luther would have recognized my bike without an issue. Bless my logical brain because Tess and I would be face down in a ditch instead of on our way back to Hoppa if I hadn’t thought to take the car.
It was almost poetic justice. All I’d done for the past two months was try and put as much space between the Unchained Dogs and myself as possible. In any other circumstance, I’d be cutting my losses and living up to my name, Phantom. Tess and I could have well left the Unchained Dogs and Steel Knights to battle it out instead of hunt us down, and by the time the dust cleared and anyone was on our trail again, we’d be sixty thousand feet in the air.
But something about the last month I’d spent in Hoppa just wouldn’t let me leave things that way.
Nick had taken me in like a son, and whether or not they agreed with my presence there, the Steel Knights accepted me. With more time, things might have been different—for me, at least. In a year or two, I could have had people looking at Tess the way she deserved to be looked at.
Unfortunately, time just wasn’t something I had.
I still felt obligated to help defend the club that had kept me hidden and safe for a month, and maybe I was looking for an opportunity to face Luther again, too. Maybe I was looking for a final battle with the man who’d built me and broken me down. If Tess and I could make it in and out of this fight alive, we could put this world behind us and start a new life somewhere where no one was looking for us, where no one was judging us.
This seemed like a fair final obstacle before my happy life.
In the time that we were driving, we never caught up to the bikes, so the fear that we were too late slowly washed over Tess and me the closer we got to the Taphouse. As we were crossing the city limits into Hoppa, Tess slid on her brass knuckles and pulled out her gun. A few minutes later, we turned onto the block where the Taphouse was, and we saw that all of the Unchained Dogs’ bikes were parked haphazardly outside.
Two of the Dogs were standing in front of the door with their arms crossed. I looked over at Tess, expecting her to be afraid, but she had a wide grin on her face. She twisted her head to one side, and her neck cracked. “I’m so fucking ready for this.”
She looked so sexy as she geared up for a fight, and it sent a jolt of excitement rushing south, but we had no time for that. Instead, I laughed and parked the car outside the Taphouse, and we climbed out. We walked up to the front door, and I could see that the men standing out front were two of Luther’s watchdogs, a pair of burlier men who insisted on vests with no undershirts, Fred “Bedrock” Marcus and Anthony “Fat Cat” Kirio.
“Fuck,” Bedrock growled when he saw me. “Is that fucking Phantom?”
Fat Cat looked right at me, and the fear that flashed across his eyes gave me a needed boost of confidence. He looked back toward the Taphouse and then back at me. “I ain’t letting you in there.”
“No?” I asked. “Then meet my better-half, Valkyrie.”
Tess didn’t stop in her stride. She marched right up to Fat Cat and decked him in the face. Bedrock went for his gun, but Tess quickly kicked him in his groin and sent her brass-armed fist crashing against his face.
“Go,” Tess said. “I got this.”
There was no reason for me to hesitate. I stepped over her—she was easily handling Fat Cat and Bedrock—and passed through the front doors of Hoppa’s. Unexpectedly, the place was totally empty, but I could hear scuffling coming from the warehouse. I used both hands to hoist myself onto and over the bar. I rushed through the door into the kitchen and then through the door into the warehouse, where all hell was breaking loose. Unchained Dogs were battling Steel Knights left and right, and though no one seemed to have the upper hand, there was one Unchained Dog that had the better of the Steel Knight he was up against.
Luther was looming above Nick, who knelt on the ground with a gun pressed to his forehead.
“Where’s that pretty daughter of yours?” Luther asked Nick. “I wasreallyhoping to see her, Nicky.”
I took a few steps into the warehouse so that I could clearly be heard when I yelled, “How about me instead?”
Everyone stopped in their tracks and turned to look at me. Luther’s head turn was slow like he was savoring the moment. To my relief, he completely turned his back to Nick and faced me.
“Well, now isn’t this an unexpected treat,” Luther started. “You sure do know how to get around, I’ll give you that.”
Nick’s eyes widened. “CJ! Watch out!”
Though Luther was nowhere near me, I heeded the warning and ducked, shuffling to the side as I did so. What just narrowly missed my head was a large, wide machete blade. The wind of it brushed through my hair as I dodged to the side, and when I finally got my bearings, I looked up into Taylor’s cold, unrelenting eyes.
